Ask Doc You might not want to follow my advice today...
As humans, we prefer the known to the unknown.
Picture your favorite restaurant, for example...
You go to this special place every month or so because the wine is good, the waitstaff is friendly, and you love the food. But think about it... How much of the food do you actually love?
In my experience, most folks have two or three favorite dishes. Every time they go to their favorite restaurant, they just rotate among those two or three meals. They don't experiment much with the rest of the menu. I know when I go down to a little Italian restaurant outside of our offices here at Stansberry Research, I rarely venture away from the chicken parmesan (and a side of broccoli with garlic).
Once folks have a routine and certain preferences, it's hard to stray from them. Even if someone told me the cappellini alla lula was twice as good as the chicken parm, I wouldn't immediately want to try it. I know what to expect when the waiter brings me the chicken parm. But the cappellini alla lula is unknown... I could love it or I could hate it. That uncertainty is enough to make most of us unwilling to break our routines.
Study after study proves that we are less likely to try new things.
One study looked at the travel behaviors of commuters on the London Underground. Better known as "the Tube," the world's oldest underground railway network handles millions of passengers each day.
On February 4, 2014, London Underground workers went on a two-day strike, which caused some Tube stations to close. This forced certain commuters to experiment and find new routes to their work. After the two-day strike ended, all stations were open and back to normal operations.
Once all stations were working again, most commuters went back to their old route. After all, old habits die hard. But some commuters – about 1 in 20 – decided to stick with the new route they discovered when the strike was occurring.
According to the study, the folks who stuck with the new route saved nearly seven minutes on their normally 32-minute average commute. The study also found that if the strike had been longer, more folks would have likely found faster routes and shaved more time off their commutes.
This just proves we're reluctant to try new things. It took a strike and the closure of many stations for passengers to find a faster route. They could have found that route long ago if they had simply experimented a bit...
But again, it's tough to break old habits.
Investing is no different. Investors are reluctant to try new things.
Many folks in the market are simply "buy and hold" investors. That works for the majority of us because it's simple. You find quality businesses that trade for reasonable prices and you hold them because you know that over time those businesses will get even better. You'll grow your wealth gradually.
But if you just buy and hold stocks, you're depriving yourself...
By closing yourself off to anything that is foreign or new, you're missing out on potentially better moneymaking opportunities.
Recently, I flew 2,600 miles to hear the story of a subscriber who was willing to try something new. He's not a Wall Street insider... or somebody with a multimillion-dollar trading account... He's just a typical American.
Yet over the past five years, he has accumulated nearly $118,000 in extra cash – and counting.
And it was all because he was willing to try an investment strategy that most average investors ignore. This strategy is one of my favorite ways to collect steady income, regardless of what's happening in the markets. It's easy to learn and requires no prior experience.
To hear this subscriber's full story – and find out how you can use the same technique – click here.
Now, let's dig into the Q&A... As always, keep sending your comments, questions, and topic suggestions to [email protected]. My team and I really do read every e-mail.
Q: Can you provide any research or opinions of allulose as a sweetener? – E.J.
A: Thanks for your question, E.J. Allulose is a type of sugar found naturally in molasses, figs, raisins, maple syrup, and wheat. Like lots of other sucrose (regular sugar) alternatives, the biggest benefit of allulose is that it doesn't raise your blood-sugar levels. It also has fewer calories than sugar... A teaspoon of sugar has 16 calories, while a teaspoon of allulose has 1.6 calories.
Comparing allulose against other artificial sweeteners, some people say it tastes more like sugar. (Artificial sweeteners are known for a bitter or chemical aftertaste, especially if you're using a lot.)
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has labeled allulose "generally recognized as safe." This means that allulose is "generally recognized, among qualified experts, as having been adequately shown to be safe under the conditions of its intended use, or unless the use of the substance is otherwise excepted from the definition of a food additive." But there could still be risks we just haven't found yet.
If you're a regular reader, you already know about the dangers of other artificial sweeteners. We don't have enough research yet to say for sure that allulose is absolutely safe. If you eat too much, we know it can cause digestive issues like bloating, gas, and diarrhea. We'll wait to see when more data comes out before declaring it a safe addition to your diet.
As we say with most things that aren't what your body naturally needs... if you're going to use it, do so in moderation.
What We're Reading...
- Did you miss it? Two months ago, I did something I've never done before.
- Something different: The controversy surrounding France's newest dictionary.
Here's to our health, wealth, and a great retirement,
Dr. David Eifrig and the Health & Wealth Bulletin Research Team
November 15, 2024